Studio Goings On

 As mentioned on Sunday, there is such thing as a finished product in the studio the moment, just plenty of exploring, wondering, trying out and  building thought upon thought.  One never knows if any of this will get me anywhere, but it's just the way I do things it seems. 

First up tho, I had a visit from a fellow artist who wants to test out  a few ideas on the presses. He brought with him some simply beautiful brass stencils with a history unknown to us both.  I fell in love on the spot.

He ever so kindly gifted me a couple.

I loved the remnant handwriting on this one; and the lines marked on each stencil to guide the height of the numbers and symbols.

And I also love that the hand-cut nature of them...

I am working in a few different directions and trying to progress my thinking on all of them. I headed back to the eggshells, trying to work out what I wanted to say with them and how I might say it. Funny how a weird idea takes hold and you can't leave it alone. A bit like an itch that just needs to be scratched. To what end I wonder? 

This looks like two badly poached eggs I reckon! What this taught me was that trying to spray paint eggs that have been bought from a shop and have a stencil mark on them, does not work.

It also taught me that trying to cover an egg in a single spray also does not work - too much drip.

At Barry's suggestion, I sprayed them a few times in a light spray pattern. MUCH better. This is after having tried several other options - all sorts of white ink; and white acrylic paint in various strengths.  I almost went to try white nail polish when I sparkily remembered spray cans!

And thinking about how they might sit, should they rest open a wee ring? 

Or should they lie loosely and sort of tumble?

Sometimes work appears almost fully formed and I just do a few bits of this and that along the way. At other times I push, encourage, barter and try to weedle it out into the world...